WHO ARE YOU IN 2009?

Two months sounds like a long time but in reality it feels like just a few days. So, what seems like a few days ago I went to my first Isoc talk where the topic was the much loved topic of identity. Nothing new for me there. I’d been to numerous talks on identity and expected this one to be no different. And so rather unwisely, I went to the event with the intention of making new friends rather than learning anything new.
‘Who do you think you are?’ was the name of the talk. I recall the brother walking onto the stage, scrutinizing the rather sparse audience of fresher Muslims and beginning: ‘does everyone know who they are?’ Nobody answered. Because he didn’t give anyone a chance to answer. Instead he asserted: ‘Because if you do than I can move on to what I really wanted to talk about.’ And so he began a lecture on the rather different subject of Muslim mentality. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I will not go into the details of his talk, but for anyone interested it is available here:
http://uploaded.to/file/my4wp6

So, although I had come with little expectation of being completely enlightened, I actually left with the feeling that I had really gained something from my first Isoc event.

And now after two months of university, surrounded by many different people with different views and backgrounds, I have come to a realisation that ‘who we are’ is an issue which is far too relevant to overlook. It has always been the hot topic amongst Islamic societies and for good reasons too- firstly because at university we are surrounded by a huge amount of non Muslims with perceptions of Islam which are mainly gathered from the media and secondly because today we dress in a more obviously Islamic way than we did say 20 years ago.

Regarding the way we dress, issues surrounding identity have moved from being exclusively about the way we should dress to being about the way we should behave whilst we are appropriately dressed. I’ll give you this example. A few weeks ago I was rummaging through my Auntie’s attic looking desperately for some Chaucer essays to help me through my first term of English Literature when I came across a Muslim magazine written by the students of SOAS and UCL in 1993. On the first page the question of identity was raised under the subheading ‘WHO ARE YOU?’ The editor commented: ‘I believe about 90% of this single Ummah at SOAS and UCL do not look particularly like Muslims. They could be anything, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Bahai, Jewish, Atheist...anything.’ she goes on to effectively rant about how the lack of Islamic clothing has caused a blur between the Muslim and non Muslim identity. ‘Are we embarrassed about our religion?!’ she demands. ‘why do we feel like this when Allah (swt) tells us: 'you are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong and believing in God (al Imran, 3:110).’


Today I would not assert that Muslims as a whole dressed any better. In fact with fashion favouring leggings and short tops (?!!) it is reasonable to argue that some of us are looking even worse. But I do believe that knowledge of our faith and the freedom and confidence to openly practice it has grown and as such so have the amount of sisters wearing hijab and jilbab and brothers supporting beards, thobes etc. But what is the identity issue today? Who are we in 2009? I believe that we are a generation with an altered identity crisis because we dress according to the criteria of Islam but then do not behave in an Islamic manner. In other words we seem to have forgotten the basic principles of INNER hijab.

So for example, if wearing the headscarf is a symbol of modesty and a useful way of telling the other sex that NO you are NOT interested, then why do some covered sisters act immodestly (by swearing at the top of their voices as one common example) and flirt unashamedly with guys ? And vice-versa. There appear to be too many brothers who don’t seem to understand what hijab means. I really pity those poor sisters who for no reason whatsoever have caught the attention of Mr Not-So-Practicing, who despite her hijab, is forever trying to chat her up and invite her to this event and that event.

Hijab= I am not interested in going to the PakSoc dance with you or any dance in that matter, leave me alone!

Or at least it should do!

Moving on to the issue of the media, it is blatantly clear the majority of non-Muslims seem to have a warped perception of us because of the amount of lies and misconceptions the media churns out on a daily basis. That is why it is so important that we know who we are and what we believe so that we can combat these ideas. Identity is both our character as well as the way we dress. We are certainly confused Muslims if we dress in one way and behave in another. It’s about time that we truly question who we are and start applying the principles of both inner and outer hijab to our characters. Because until we know who we are ourselves, there is no hope of ever changing the way the media and non Muslims see us.